Humidifier



May 5, 1925.

E. G. ALDEN HUMIDIFIER Filed April '7. 1923 IN VEN TOR. ['2 /245 6/4205 ATTOEY.

Patented May 5, 1925..

. Application fiieaa' rn 7,

To all whom-iifonay concern:

. Be it known that I, EARLE Gp ALDEN, a. citizen of the United States of'Amerioa, residing atflDenver', in the county of Denver and. State of Colorado, have invented oer tain newland useful Improvements in Humidifiers, of-which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to-humidifiers or air moisteners, more particularly of the type adapted to be placed in tobacco show eases, wall cases and storage containers for to-* bacco. a

The usualtype of humidifier at present in. use in tobacco cases consists of a brick of porous clay, shaped in convenient forms, which must be removed from the cases at regular intervals and soaked in water. The task of removing, soaking and replacing these bricks is quite arduous in a large salesroom since it necessitates the removal of a portion of the stock from the cases and in addition it is a messy and disagreeable job. For this reason, the task is usually avoided as long as possible by the clerks and as a result the tobacco suffers from the lack of humidity. The principal object of this invention is to so construct the humidifier or moistener that its removal from the case will not be necessary when it is desired to supply the water.

A further object of the invention is to provide a porous container having a recess for the reception of water, the walls of said recess being shaped in such relation to the said recessas to cause the water to become uniformly distributed throughout the cellular spaces of the container material.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a humidifier consisting of a porous container provided with a recess for the reception of'liquid', the cubic-capacity of said recess being practically equal to the cellular capacity of said container.

\Vith these and other objects,whicli will become more apparent from the following description, in view, the invention will now be described in detail'reference being had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numbers refer to like parts throughout the description and. inall views of the drawing. I

In the drawing:

lower parts of the walls.

EARLE sarinnnor nnnvna oononano.

. a Y UMIDIFI ERJ 1923. serial No. 630,528.

Fig. lis aperspective view of the pre ferred form ot'the. invention.

Fig. 2 1s a perspective view of another form which diflers from the preferred form only'in shape. n

IFig. 3 is cross sectional view showing how a cross section taken through either of the forms would appear.

The invention compr1sesa block of porous clay or simllar absorbent material 10. Block 10 may be formed in any desired shape, provi'ded theto be described relations are maintained. It is preferred to have the block 10 rectangular as to'plan, as shown in Fig. 1,

'it might, however, be formedcircular as to plan, as show in Fig} Blo'ck 1O rests in a pan 13, ofproper shape to conform to the bottom of the block v 10 I The width or diameter, as the case may .be, of block 10 is less at the top than a't the bottom.

A recess-11 is formed in the upper face of'bl0ck-10, the width or diameter of which is less at the bottom than at the top.

Recess l1 terminates above the bottom of the block 10 a distance practically equal to the thickness of the side walls at this point. It will be noted that the sides of the recess 11 increase appreciably in thickness as they approach the-bottom. The reasons for this are best explained as follows:

It was found that, when the humidifier was formed as a snnple porous watercontainer with walls and bottom ofequal thick- ;ness throughout, for instance equal to the present top thickness (indicated at 12), and the recess 11 filled with water, the water would soon seep through the bottomv and The only part which would'become properly saturated and retain its moisture would be the upper part ofthe sides for the water would have receded from here before it seeped through thewalls.

Wheat-he container was made with walls of even and greater thickness, as for instance of a thickness equal to the thickness at 1%, Fig; 3, the lower portions of the walls would become. properly saturated but themoisture would not come through to the outer faces at the upperportions of the walls owing to the fact that it had receded from here before saturation had been reached. 1 The walls were then made, as QIDbOtllQC in this invention, of increasing thickness as the bottom was approached, the contour of the cross section closely following the line of maximum saturation from one filling of the recess 11.

Owing to the porosity of the material of the block 10. water could not be retained in the recess 11 but would seep through into the pan 13 after the saturation point was reached. The block 10 and the recess 11 are therefore so proportioned that one filling of the recess 11 will practically fill the cellular space of the block 10. The inner faces of the walls of the recess then become evaporation surfaces similar to the outside faces thereof. This is one of the important features of the invention since it enables the use ofa smaller humidifier than at present in use without sacrificing any of the evaporation surface.

\Vhen in use, water is simply poured into the recesses 11 of the various humidifiers in the cases at regular intervals. Any excess of water supplied will be retained in the pans 13 and drawn into the lower portion of the blocks 10 as the water therein evaporates. It is not necessary to disturb the humidifiers.

It is desired understood that the object of the invention could also be accomplished by having the block 10 of even width or diameter throughout its height and increasing the angle of the recess sides, or by having the recess 11 of even width throughout its depth and increasing the angle of the sides of the block 10. These forms, how ever, have not been found as satisfactory as the one disclosed.

lVhile a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein it is desired understood that the same may be varied, within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and (ilesired secured by Letters Patent is:-

1. A hun'iiditier comprising a block of porous material having a recess formed in the top thereof, the cubical contents of said recess being substantially equal to the cubical apacity of the cellular spaces in said porous material.

2. In a humidifier comprising a liquid container, the con'ibina-tion of porous walls for said container which increase in thickness from the top to the bottom thereof.

3. In a humidifier comprising a liquid container, the combination of porous walls for said container which. increase in thickness from the top to the bottom thereof. and a porous bottom therefor of thickness substantially equal to that of the walls at their thickest point.

.Tn testimony whereof I aiiix my signature.

EARLE G. ALDEN. 

